Learn about current and future support
Apple will continue to develop and support macOS Server, which includes Open Directory, Profile Manager, and Xsan management. The most popular server features—Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server—have been bundled with every installation of macOS High Sierra since its release in fall 2017, so that even more customers have access to these essential services at no extra cost.
In fall 2018, Apple will stop bundling open source services such as Calendar Server, Contacts Server, the Mail Server, DNS, DHCP, VPN Server, and Websites with macOS Server. Customers can get these same services directly from open-source providers. This way, macOS Server customers can install the most secure and up-to-date services as soon as they’re available.
Because these open-source services are the same services that currently ship with macOS Server, customers will be able to run them with the same data on the same Mac computers.
Prepare for the changes in macOS server
To help prepare for this transition, these open-source services are still included in macOS Server 5.6. For new installations of macOS Server, these services will no longer be visible in the sidebar of the Server app. Customers can access these services in new installations of macOS Server from the View menu in the Server app.
For existing macOS Server customers updating to macOS Server 5.6 from previous versions, macOS Server will be unaffected, and will continue to work as before.
With the release of macOS Server 5.6, Apple is publishing documentation to help with this transition.
Supported Services
The following services are fully supported and visible by default in macOS Server 5.6:
- Profile Manager
- Open Directory
- Xsan
Services Migrated from macOS Server to macOS High Sierra
These services are now available in macOS High Sierra, and can be found in System Preferences > Sharing:
- File Server
- Caching Server
- Time Machine Server
Service status
This table shows the status of each macOS Server service, and available alternatives:
| Service | Status | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| FTP | Removed in Server 5.4 | SFTP/SSH |
| Server Docs | Removed in Server 5.4 |
iCloud Documents, Apache/WebDAV |
| DHCP | Planned removal Fall 2018 for UI tools. | bootpd, built into macOS |
| DNS | Planned removal Fall 2018 | BIND, Unbound, KnotDNS |
| VPN | Planned removal Fall 2018 | OpenVPN, SoftEther VPN, Tcpcrypt |
| Firewall | Planned removal Fall 2018 for UI tools. | pf firewall (built into macOS) |
| Mail Server | Planned removal Fall 2018 | |
| Calendar | Planned removal Fall 2018 | CalendarServer, DavMail, Radicale, Kerio Connect |
| Wiki | Planned removal Fall 2018 | MediaWiki, PmWiki, XWiki, Confluence, WordPress WMX files |
| Websites | Planned removal Fall 2018 for UI tools. | Apache HTTP Server (built into macOS), Nginx, Lighttpd |
| Contacts | Planned removal Fall 2018 | CalendarServer, DavMail, Citadel, Kerio Connect |
| Net Boot/Net Install | Planned removal Fall 2018 for UI tools. | BOOTP, TFTP, HTTP, NFS (all built into macOS), NetSUS, BSDPy |
| Messages | Planned removal Fall 2018 | ejabberd, Openfire, Prosody |
| Radius | Planned removal Fall 2018 | FreeRadius |
| Airport Management | Planned removal Fall 2018 | AirPort Utility |